National Nurses United

NATIONAL NURSES UNITED. Founded in 2009, the National Nurses United (NNU) became, a decade later, the largest organization of registered nurses in the United States. Unifying three major nursing organizations --the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, United American Nurses, and Massachusetts Nurses Association--, membership reached 150,000 nationwide in 2020.

Affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the NNU embraced an activist agenda to contest the prevailing standards for nurses and patients imposed by the healthcare industry. The organization advanced programs of collective bargaining, with all nurses organized into a single, industry-wide unit, and policies that promoted "healthcare justice, accessible, quality healthcare for all, as a human right.”

The more distant background of the NNU can be found mainly in older state or other nurses’ associations, some going back to the early twentieth century. State-licensed, white collar workers who considered themselves educated and trained as professionals, the “RNs” (registered nurses) increasingly sought to advance themselves collectively, to establish for the public the dignity of their work, and the right to proper conditions and pay. In that way, they resembled other, historic craft unions, such as the Newspaper Guild, set apart from industrial unions but sharing many similar concerns and aspirations. The unionization of health workers at large in the 1970s-90s, as well as the challenges facing nurses in the twenty-first century, prompted the merger creating the NNU, a union that sought to ally the nurses with the patients foremost, rather than with the institutions of a health care system gone awry.

The 2008 financial crisis brought the NNU into the spotlight. The organization joined Occupy Wall Street to protest the private healthcare industry’s devotion to profit over the well-being of people. By 2011, their motto “Heal America, Make Wall Street Pay” resonated. To assist the protesters, locals setup first-aid tents in several cities, mainly in California and New York. The NNU pledged "to create a movement –- through demonstrations and legislative bills—that helps working-class people who are struggling during hard economic times. The campaign goal is to reclaim an economy with good jobs at living wages, healthcare for all, quality education, good housing, protection from hunger, a safe environment, and a secure retirement for everyone." The NNU campaigned for the Inclusive Prosperity Act introduced by Bernie Sanders and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). The so-called Robin Hood Tax, a small tax on financial transactions, could generate as much as $220 billion to fund programs such as universal college education and infrastructure projects as well as fight workplace violence, poverty, AIDS, climate change, and the Green New Deal. To reach members, the NNU published the bi-monthly National Nurse magazine.

The NNU served as a major supporter of single-payer health care legislation. Organizing a campaign to push the Democratic Party to incorporate the demand for a single-payer plan in its 2016 platform, the organization denounced the party for its refusal to do so. The NNU held firm, noting that public support was growing and reaching toward seventy percent of those polled. In 2019, Executive Director Bonnie Castillo RN petitioned the U.S. Congress to “side with the people to guarantee safe, therapeutic health care for every person in the United States.” The organization enthusiastically endorsed the Medicare for All Act of 2019 introduced in the Senate by Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and in the House of Representatives by Premila Jayapal (D-WA). Members conducted massive canvasses to rally voters behind this issue during the 2020 presidential campaign.

The NNU endorsed Bernie Sanders in both the 2016 and 2020 Democratic Presidential campaigns and raised large sums to fund ads and canvasses. In 2020 the organization joined him in criticizing President Donald J. Trump for acting so slowly and erratically in handling the COVID-19 crisis. Throughout the spring, members staged protests at the nation’s largest hospitals to draw attention to the lack of preparedness to deal with the high volume of patients and the lack of sufficient protective gear for health workers. The NNU petitioned Congress to supply the necessary personal protective equipment and additionally assembled information and policy updates for its members and the general public on its website.

National Nurses United https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/about